How To Make and Break a Terrorist Using Facebook

The Department of Homeland Security recently reported that terrorists are using Facebook to "target, recruit and radicalize members of the general public," reports Fox News. It looks like the FBI is doing much the same thing.

Antonio Martinez, 21, is a recent convert to Islam who broadcast his love of his new religion in a Facebook status update. From the AFP:

"[O]n September 29, 2010, Martinez publicly posted on his Facebook account a statement calling for violence to stop the oppression of Muslims, and that on Oct. 1, 2010, he publicly posted a message stating that he hates any person who opposes Allah and his prophet," a Justice Department statement said.

FBI agents reached out to Martinez, who goes by Muhammad Hussain, via Facebook and offered to help him carry out an attack. They supplied him with a fake bomb, and then arrested him Wednesday when he tried to detonate it outside of a military recruitment office in Baltimore.

Martinez has just 16 friends on the Facebook profile page fingered by AOL News as his. In his About Me section, he wrote, "IM just a yung brotha from the wrong side of the tracks who embraced Islam. Asalaamualaykum to the muslim ummah I love yall but im worried, were are we gonna be ten years from now idk only Allah does and HE knows best."

Well, Martinez may now know where he'll be in 10 years. According to the AFP, he "faces life in prison for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against US federal property."